Christmas: Just An Opening Chapter

Try and imagine back a couple of millennia as Mary sat in a barn, looking at her newborn son nestled in a feed trough.

The birth was different, she knew this from the visit she had from an angel about a year before. Luke retold the encounter: “The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’

“Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.’

“How can this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’

“The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elisabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.’

“I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May your word to me be fulfilled.’ Then the angel left her.” — Luke 1:28-38

That was a lot to take in for a girl probably in her teens. She had lived a good, solid life devoted to God. Not a perfect life mind you, there is only one who ever lived such a life, but there was something that made Mary a bit different from the other women around Israel.

For centuries Jewish women rejoiced at the thought of having a son with their prayer that they would be the one to give birth to the Messiah, or, as we know him — the Christ.

That message, though, came to Mary in the fullness of God’s time, and she humbly submitted her self to God’s will.

Fast-forward nine months, Mary sitting in the barn looking at her son and remembering the things told to her by that angel. She looked upon the face of the Messiah, the one who would reconcile mankind back to God. Imagine her surprise when a group of shepherds and others came into the barn just to gaze upon the face of the young baby there.

Then, just a few weeks later we see Mary and Joseph at the temple as Jesus was consecrated to the Lord, as per the Law of the Lord. While at the temple an old man named Simeon, who had been promised he would not die before he seen the “Lord’s Messiah,” came and took the child in his arms and said:

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” — Luke 2:29-32

Luke tells us Mary and Joseph marveled at this, as to when the prophet Anna came to see Jesus.

Twelve years later, Jesus fails to leave with his parents after spending Passover in Jerusalem. Jesus did not leave with the rest of his party of travelers and his parents had to go back to get him. Being a concerned mother Mary fussed at him and said, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”

Jesus asked her why they were looking for him, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” Luke said Mary and Joseph didn’t understand what Jesus told them, what she expected as the mother of the Messiah was probably different than the reality of her life at that point, but we are told Jesus went with his earthly family back to Nazareth and was obedient to them, but Luke points out in Luke 2:51 “His mother treasured all these things in her heart.”

All parents treasure those special moments with their children, but what joy Mary must have had at knowing she was looking at the one told of by the prophets, knowing that God was residing in her home.

The sad part is, we truly don’t know the state of her mind and what she expected from her son. As she treasured those cute moments with her child, the first words, the first steps and the joy of watching him grow into a man, the cross probably never crossed Mary’s mind.

She likely had no idea of the task set before her son.

We see in John 2 at a wedding ceremony in Cana, Jesus had just begun his ministry and he and his disciples had been invited to a wedding along with his mother, Mary, who was probably helping with all of the rituals noticed all the wine was gone and she went to Jesus for help.

The answer she got was not a warm, “I’ll run to the store to get some.” It may have been the first instance where she was faced with what lay ahead for Jesus, just as John relates it was his first miracle.

Anyway, Jesus told Mary, “Woman, who do you involve me? My hour has not yet come.”

Of course we know Mary told the servants to do whatever Jesus told them, see, she knew Jesus was special, and we all know Jesus turned the water into wine, and it was probably a moment she treasured as she saw her son wow all of the people at the wedding with his power.

She would learn over the coming few years that Jesus was destined to do so much more, she would learn he came to give life to a dying world. She would see him embraced as a Messiah and then she would see the whole of Israel turn against him.

Then, Mary is shown again at the cross, John tells us Jesus’ last words to his mother were, “Woman, behold, your son!” Jesus then told John to take care of his mother.

Jesus’ words to her, though, to “behold, your son!” was almost a command.

From the first words of the angel to Mary, to his birth, ministry and crucifixion, his mother saw it all, and Jesus, I believe was cutting to her core. I am sure, in his omnipotence, he knew Mary didn’t see the cross when she looked upon that child in the manger.

It is a question we must ask ourselves. When we look at the Nativity scenes dotting the countryside, even decorating some of our courthouse squares, do we see a cute little child, or do we see the cross?

The path of Christ led him to the cross; where for once and for all he reconciled a fallen and sinful world back to God. Jesus became sin, our sin, and forever destroyed the veil separating us from our God.

Christmas is about so much more than the birth of an unusual child; it is the opening chapter on the story of our redemption.